By Y. J. Itopa
Ohionwa is one of the autochthonous clans of Ihima whose primaeval name, Onotu means the next in Kingship or one whose compound God has chosen for grace, glamour and has showered His favour on.
In Ihima-Onotu land, Ohionwa is one of the three aboriginal clans whose c traditional stools bear the name of Obobanyi, the great hunter.
In spite of its greatness, the Obobanyi title is not ranked higher than other native clan stools like Ogasube of Ure, Ohiomata of Odumi and Idu of Oha. Specifically, Ihima is like a typical Ebira republican town where no one enters his household through that of his sibling.
Ihima is a town where every person is proud to bear his father’s name yet the people are quick to radiate love, emit confidence and exude civic responsibility towards the town. These attributes, Ihima’s endowments and its jealously guided kernel for which it is famous, should not be taken for granted by other town kinsmen.
In this proud, classless and ancient town, His Royal Highness, Jeremiah Akaava is the incumbent Obobanyi, the most populous and second youngest of the six clan children of Ihima- Onotu in Ebira of Kogi State.
Akaava, as the 12th person to have ascended the over 300 year’s old throne of his ancestors, is by the grace of God 114 years old, making him the oldest monarch in the world. Though he mounted the ancestral stool at middle age in accordance with Ebira customs, the monarch has spent 34 years on the throne.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the oldest monarch in the world is Queen Elizabeth ll of England who turned 89 in 2015 and as at this year is now 91 .
Coming nearer home, some people have erroneously said that 83 year old Awujale Sikiru Kayode, the King of Ijebuland in Ogun State, is the oldest monarch in Nigeria. Even the Ebira paramount Ohinogi, His Royal Majesty, Alhaji Ado Ibrahim is much older than the Ijebu monarch. The revered Awujale can only be the age mate of Mama Eneyamire, the Obobanyi’s third child.
The Obobanyi is from a clan lineage which is known for its longevity. In a discussion with this writer some years back, the patriarch of Ohionwa clan revealed that long life is a blessing to the family, citing the example of his uncle, the great Ochado Osansan Agama who lived up to 130 years.
According to the Obobanyi, famous people like Yakubu Wokili, the younger brother to the first Ohinoyi of Ebira land, Pa Chogudo Onoruoiza were thronging Ihima like Mecca to admire him, owing to his age and exploits.
According to his thirtieth anniversary profile as the Obobanyi, which was held in 2013, Pa Jeremiah Akaava was born to the sprawling and respected family of Opara Akaava of Ehi lineage of Aisina sub clan of Ohionwa.
Akaava’s mother, mama Ameri was from Avi clan Obangede. As a young boy, Akavva began his life by farming for his fathers, both maternal and paternal, as custom required, before farming his own at Akunnu of the present Ondo State.
Not being a lazy person, he added trading to his farming, selling jute bags, Ebira-hand woven clothes and associated wears. With a bicycle, the young Akaava had no difficulty plying his trade in the nooks and crannies of Yoruba land, especially where Ebira people lived in thick settlements.
Not satisfied, Akaava went to Ado Ekiti in search of greener pastures where he quickly settled down and began full scale farming. Before long, Akaava went home and built a house for his father.
By this achievement Akaava was regarded as a remarkable farmer. Before long, he was made an elder in the church because he could speak Yoruba fluently and Akaava was baptised in the early 40s. Subsequently, he rose to distinguish himself as an astute administrator.
In the early 60s, he was invited by his people to take part in a councillorship contest. Akaava became a two-term councilor and but for the 1975 coup, he would have been asked by his Ihima people to continue his legislative job. A politician of repute, he had the option of going back to his trading after the coup but the farmer- turned politician returned to his first vocation, to Iyara, a town in Ijumu in Kwara State, where he started a new farm.
Like a golden fish which has no hiding place, the then Olujumu of Ijumu had spotted sterling leadership qualities in him. The ljumu chief had wanted to make Akaava the Ohinoyi Anebira of Ijumu. His name had been forwarded to the then Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Adamu Atta.
To that effect, when his people of Ohionwa clan invited him to wear the pristine crown of his great ancestral fathers as Obobanyi of Ohionwa, Significantly, Ohionwa was the hunter who performed the feat of killing the rare white Bufallo in Ebira land.
According to records, Chief Jeremiah Akaava was born in 1903, few months before the mysterious, devastating but historic burial of the famous Odimboro of Anyoke in the present Adavi local government.
An account was given of how the vast compound where Odimboro’s remains were being dressed for interment, suddenly and mysteriously caught fire, killing almost all of the sympathizers from across Ebira land that attended the burial. The ever hovering ghosts of the charred remains of the mourners have made that singular event memorable in the land, to the extent that it is still being variously sang by Ebira folk singers.
From the foregoing, it is clear that Pa Jeremiah Akaava is much older than Queen Elizabeth II, who is being ranked as the world’s oldest monarch. Ebira people therefore wish to call on the authors of the Guinness Book of World Records to accord the centenarian Obobanyi the Great of Ohionwa his rightful recognition longest living monarch on earth.
